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Bishops Urge Catholic Schools to Ban a Nun’s Book
The New York Times ^ | 3/30/11 | Laurie Goodstein

Posted on 03/31/2011 7:12:27 AM PDT by marshmallow

A committee of American Roman Catholic bishops announced Wednesday that a popular book about God by Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, a theologian at Fordham University in New York, should not be used in Catholic schools and universities because it does not uphold church doctrine.

The book, “Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God,” examines different understandings of God through the experiences of the poor and oppressed, Holocaust victims, Hispanics, women and people of religions other than Catholicism. Among the chapter titles are “God Acting Womanish” and “Accompanying God of Fiesta.”

The bishops’ committee on doctrine said in a statement: “The book does not take the faith of the Church as its starting point. Instead, the author employs standards from outside the faith to criticize and to revise in a radical fashion the conception of God revealed in Scripture and taught by the Magisterium,” the church’s teaching authority according to the popes and bishops.

Sister Johnson did not return a phone call but said in a statement that while she welcomed criticism, the bishops had radically misinterpreted her book and never invited her to discuss it.

She said, “The book itself endeavors to present new insights about God arising from people living out their Catholic faith in different cultures around the world. My hope is that any conversation that may be triggered by this statement will enrich that faith.”

Sister Johnson is a prominent feminist theologian and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society, an ecumenical organization. She belongs to a religious order in New York, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Theology
KEYWORDS: ats; catholic; ctsa; elizabethjohnson; feminist; fordhamuniversity; sisterjohnson
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To: verdugo

verdugo:

Well done.


21 posted on 03/31/2011 10:50:30 AM PDT by CTrent1564
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To: BlackElk
re: Verdugo: Let’s see how you do if you try to make yourself actually useful for a change

Give me your postal mailing address and I'll send you some free passes to etiquette and genteel communications classes.

22 posted on 03/31/2011 10:50:33 AM PDT by verdugo ("You can't lie, even to save the World")
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To: BlackElk
By the way, that was Orestes Brownson, the strict EENSer, that also wrote:

Orestes Brownson 1874: "There can be no more fatal mistake than to soften, liberalize or latitudinize this terrible dogma, "Out of the Church there is no salvation... If we wish to convert Protestants and infidels we must preach in all its rigor the naked dogma. Give them the smallest peg or what appears so, not to you, but to them;--- the smallest peg on which to hang a hope of salvation without being in or actually reconciled to the Church by the sacrament of Penance, and all the arguments you can address to them to prove the necessity of being in the Church in order to be saved will have no more effect on them than rain on a duck's back."

23 posted on 03/31/2011 10:59:23 AM PDT by verdugo ("You can't lie, even to save the World")
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To: verdugo

verdugo:

Well done in the context of the article and some of the responses. Not looking to get into what is the definition of EENS in this thread with you.

Regardless, even you must commend the U.S. Bishops Conference for criticizing Prof. Johnson’s “book and views” [not her person] and lets hope she recants and revises her book.


24 posted on 03/31/2011 11:03:33 AM PDT by CTrent1564
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To: verdugo
Hypocrite. By sending #22 to Black Elk, you maybe should be looking into those classes yourself.
25 posted on 03/31/2011 11:05:57 AM PDT by fish hawk (R. Emmett Tyrrell: Liberalism is dead. What we see now is "soft Nazis-ism".)
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To: CTrent1564
Lets hope she recants and revises her book.

Yeah, we can all see her doing that, right. Radical Catholic Feminists are always looking to be corrected and willing to accept the opposition view.

26 posted on 03/31/2011 11:12:06 AM PDT by fish hawk (R. Emmett Tyrrell: Liberalism is dead. What we see now is "soft Nazis-ism".)
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To: Dutchboy88
One of the important rules of posting around here is to avoid claiming to know how a person thinks. You may wish to review those rules.

I'm sorry my post was removed. Seems pretty clear to me how you think... and it deserved my response. I make no apologies for your abuse report. Remain in your much-beloved ignorance, if you choose. I'm done with your inane postings. Good day.

27 posted on 03/31/2011 11:16:14 AM PDT by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats... when they do.)
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To: fish hawk

It wa a joke. Black Elk and I go back a long way. We use to double date.


28 posted on 03/31/2011 11:28:23 AM PDT by verdugo ("You can't lie, even to save the World")
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To: fish hawk

fish hawk:

You never know, there was a Catholic feminist who was involved in a “fake ordination” and she publicly recanted after being excommunicated. Now, I don’t think what Prof. Johnson did warrants excommunication, but “censure” was the correct measure by the Bishops. At some point, if she continues down this path, then her credentials as a Catholic Theologian should be taken away, similar to Fr. Curran back in the 80’s here in the States and Fr. Kung in Europe.


29 posted on 03/31/2011 11:38:01 AM PDT by CTrent1564
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To: Dutchboy88
Certainly. The myth that there is some kind of "unified" thought process eminating from Rome about correct doctrine is routinely being debunked by the various elements of the organization. The real believers in Jesus Christ and the rest of the world is observing just how fragmented the thinking is within this self-aggrandizing organization.

Well thanks for those splendid observations.

You're happy that Rome is "fragmented" and I'm happy that it's less fragmented than yesterday, thanks to the bishops' decision.

Win-win.

30 posted on 03/31/2011 11:42:41 AM PDT by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future" -Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: pgyanke
"I'm sorry my post was removed. Seems pretty clear to me how you think... and it deserved my response. I make no apologies for your abuse report. Remain in your much-beloved ignorance, if you choose. I'm done with your inane postings. Good day."

You may wish to get your facts straight before posting. First, I did not make an abuse report. You will have to look elsewhere as to how and why the Mod found your remarks. Second, you are repeating the problem that perhaps led to the prior removal. "Seems pretty clear how you think" and "...your much-beloved..." are statements of how I think. Please reconsider these comments. Third, you may certainly wish to be done with my remarks, however. That is entirely up to you.

31 posted on 03/31/2011 11:43:54 AM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: marshmallow
"Well thanks for those splendid observations.

You're happy that Rome is "fragmented" and I'm happy that it's less fragmented than yesterday, thanks to the bishops' decision."

You have no idea what makes me "happy", my FRiend. I simply said we are watching. Be cautious of claiming to know how I think. That is outside of the posting rules.

32 posted on 03/31/2011 11:48:05 AM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: Dutchboy88
You have no idea what makes me "happy", my FRiend. I simply said we are watching. Be cautious of claiming to know how I think. That is outside of the posting rules.

Well then, my most profound apologies for suggesting you might be happy......... :-)

What was I thinking?

And happy or unhappy, keep up the Catholic watchin'.

33 posted on 03/31/2011 12:15:05 PM PDT by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future" -Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: marshmallow; Dutch Boy

marshmallow:

Wow, “we are watching.” Is there some sort of “Calvinist KGB” [I am only asking a question]. If so, were they predestined to do so or is this one of those areas were Freewill sort of gets into the picture?

Well, regardless, as you said marshallow, glad they are watchin. Makes me sleep better at not that the “double predestined TULIP elect” are watching over us and keeping us on our toes.


34 posted on 03/31/2011 12:55:00 PM PDT by CTrent1564
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To: Dutchboy88
Or a typical Roman Catholic who has been taught that the whole organization is built on using mystical tradition to lead them to “truth”. Very similar to sacerdotalism, mariolatry, absolution, penence, indulgences, and on and on. Actually, she sounds like the book fits right in with the rest of the cult-like doctrines of Rome.

"All superstition is cruel." -- John Calvin

35 posted on 03/31/2011 1:43:53 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
"All superstition is cruel." -- John Calvin"

Perhaps John would lend this quote to the nun for her next book.

36 posted on 03/31/2011 5:55:24 PM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: marshmallow
The book, “Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God,” examines different understandings of God through the experiences of the poor and oppressed, Holocaust victims, Hispanics, women and people of religions other than Catholicism.

I presume this means she is giving another boring Marxist Feminist critique of tradition.

Believe me, I've worked with the ordinary folks who these elites look down on, from Okies to Africans, and they don't see their religion thru the eyes of feminist marxist nuns unless they're college graduates who learned to think that way by nuns or priests like this one.

Indeed, I've been given "meditations" on the "poor" that were so absurd that one wondered if these people thought poor people were their pets...

37 posted on 04/01/2011 2:54:27 AM PDT by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people)
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